Far Cry - Insights
by portals
Summary: Far Cry 3 is an open-world game, and Jason spends a lot of time just exploring Rook island, right? So I thought I'd write about his experiences and incidents outside of the main missions themselves, and just share some stories of his explorations across the island.
1. Chapter 1

Amanaki Town. Jason couldn't help but feel safe here. Well, as safe as it's possible for an outsider to feel in a lawless microcosm such as Rook Island. There was something warming about the people in this small town. The simplicity of their lives and the close-knit nature of their society appealed to Jason in an instinctive manner. He was impressed with their ruthless ability to maintain a living, working tribal outpost in a place so cut off from the civilised world. A place where rights as basic as food and communication were controlled by the omnipresent army of mindless criminals who now claimed ownership of the once peaceful island.

Jason pulled himself from his thoughts as he reached the end of the small North-facing dirt path connecting Amanaki Town to the nearby dust road. He felt the weight of his weapon on his back as his primal instincts told his subconscious that he was now leaving the safety of the one place on this island that he trusted. He stepped from the shade of the surrounding trees into a small layby containing nothing more than a few yellow barrels of long-ago-used motor oil, a miniature storage shed containing some rusty tools and what looked like an empty wooden chest, and a beat-up old vehicle which looked like it could have come from the 1970s. It seemed that vehicle aesthetics were of little concern to the owner of the car. The entire underside of the vehicle was rusted to the point of disintegration and the left side of the car's nose was missing, revealing the dirty suspension springs beneath. It occurred to Jason that the island must be bigger than he had originally thought if the locals went to the trouble of maintaining cars. In a place like this, it is unlikely that they would spend time and money keeping a vehicle running unless they really needed it.

As this thought crossed Jason's mind, he looked skyward to the top of the large hill which overlooked Amanaki Town. His destination. The hillside was smothered with all manner of tropical plants – bamboo, palm trees and exotic herbs which he had been advised could be the difference between life and death in the wilderness. The parts of the hillside which weren't adorned with brightly coloured jungle fauna were carpeted with rough, bristly grass. Jason looked higher still until his eyes were drawn towards a spindly metallic structure sticking out of the natural landscape like a sore thumb at the top of the hill. The meshed silhouette shone as the early afternoon Sun reflected from its steel appendages. The radio tower. He wasn't sure why exactly, but it had been made clear to him by the Amanaki Town residents that "getting the radio tower back online was his number one priority." Of course, Jason had argued that he had "far more pressing priorities to deal with." He had explained his dire predicament as best he could. He had told them that his siblings and some of his closest friends were missing, and that they could be anywhere out in the jungle or, most likely, being held hostage in any one of the ramshackle pirate communities that dotted both the coastlines and the mainland. The locals had made clear that they understood his concern, and they had asked him how he was planning to make things right. It had been at this point that Jason had realised that he had no plan. How _do_ you rescue a hostage? How _do_ you save one of your best friends from being sold into slavery?

The locals had advised him that they would be very happy to aid him in his quest, but it had also become clear that they needed his help. They had taken him aside and pointed to a pencil mark on a faded map – a map which Jason had assumed to show most of the island's landmass. His assumption had turned out to be correct, and the locals had told him that each of the eighteen areas marked in pencil corresponded to the location of a radio communications tower. They had explained that the pirates, in an attempt to restrict the lives of the locals as much as possible, had installed signal jammers on each radio beacon, preventing communication between villagers and outsiders. Jason had then been supplied with a semi-automatic weapon and some simple instructions. Bring the nearest tower back online.

Now that the tower was in plain sight, these instructions were not quite as simple as they had first appeared. Not only was the tower located at the top of an incline steep enough to deter any casual climber, but Jason couldn't see any immediate path to the top. He eyed the car again, half persuaded to go back into the village and ask if anyone had the keys. He decided against this, reasoning that there was unlikely to be a safe road to the top of the hill, and that even if there was, the last thing he wanted was to run into another vehicle full of hostile pirates who would shoot out his tyres (and most likely his brain) before he even had chance to stop. No, he would have to make his own way to the tower. There was a large bamboo patch along the west-facing portion of the road, and Jason made his way towards the safety of its long shadows and thick branches. As he slid among the hollow trunks, he turned his new weapon in his hands. The words of a particular local echoed through his head as he turned the loaded gun. "There's a first time for everything."


	2. Chapter 2

Jason's premonitions had been correct - accessing the radio tower overlooking Amanaki Town's locality had been all but easy. One look at his left hand was a sharp reminder that the jungle was a force to be reckoned with. During his ascent to the top of the steep incline on top of which the tower sat, he had, more than once, experienced difficulty. The deep cut into his left palm was perhaps the worst of his injuries. He had been forcing his way through a particularly thick patch of stiff, unyielding branches belonging to some variety of what looked like a tropical palm tree when the ground beneath his feet simply seemed to disappear. It had swiftly transpired that he had been walking along a loose, rocky outcrop which extended out over a hidden cave entrance. Long story short, the only way in which he could prevent himself from falling to the rough surface below was to grab onto the gnarled trunk of the nearest of the strange palm trees. He had saved himself any broken bones, but his hands had been much worse for wear. It was nothing that an improvised bandage couldn't rectify, at least for the time being, but it certainly hadn't made life any easier – especially when it came to handling the semi-automatic weapon he'd been provided with.

Once again, he mentally replayed the five minute crash course in weapon operation he'd received before being sent on the demanding mission of disabling the rogue signal jammer atop the Amanaki radio tower. The first thing he'd learned was that it was _vitally_ important to be able to swiftly discard spent ammunition clips and replace them with fresh ones. He had practised this reloading technique a few times, with varying success. He fumbled through the small supply bag which he'd received courtesy of a generous local benefactor. Amongst the small assortment of first-aid supplies and food, it was not too difficult to find the couple of extra ammo clips entrusted to him by the vendor at the Amanaki 'general store'. Safe in the knowledge that he had enough firepower to stave an attack from any oncoming threats – human or otherwise – he re-secured the bag, made sure that his makeshift bandages were suitably secure, and cautiously slid out from his hiding place for the last five minutes.

He felt incredibly exposed, having made the journey to the top of the hill under the cover of the thick, exotic vegetation adorning the tropical hillside. The thick leaves had both occluded him from any observers along his improvised route and had also provided cooling shadows amongst which he could escape the sweltering heat of the day. He pushed the final few palm leaves aside to reveal the top of the hill he'd spent the last fifteen minutes ascending. Up close, the radio tower certainly looked worse for wear. It stood alone, its wide base spread across the top of a sun-baked sandy clearing. There was a small wooden hut at the far end of the clearing. It was connected to the tower by a few limp wires extending from its roof. Jason reasoned that it must house a transformer or power generator of some description. He knew for certain that the signal jammer itself was located at the top of the tower. He suspected that the pirates had installed it there to ensure that it would be particularly difficult, if not impossible, for any passing locals to disarm it. He couldn't help but wonder why the residents of Amanaki Town had decided to task him with this seemingly impossible feat a mere few days after his impromptu arrival on the island. "Should have thought of that before forcing your way through the jungle to get up here" he mused as he turned his mind to the task of hauling himself to the top of the tower using nothing but the few hanging ropes and twisted walkways visible along the steel structure.

"It's not really as bad as it looks" he told himself as he surveyed the ground below him from his new vantage point. He had managed to climb to the first fragmented walkway surrounding the tower by pulling himself up onto the roof of the wooden electrical hut. From there, it had been a simple matter of putting his feet in the right place and making sure to avoid shifting his weight onto any of the rusty metal rivets which seemed to be holding the lower part of the structure together. He was by no means at the top yet, but he had made the first important step. He walked as far as he dared along the listing walkway until he found another opportunity to climb. This time, it came in the form of a simple wooden ladder propped against the inner edge of the tower. A careful ascent later, and he was able to haul himself onto the next level of the tower. It was likely that the tower had initially been accessed for maintenance by the use of a network of catwalks and ladders surrounding the main scaffold, but clearly, maintenance was not on the minds of whoever now used the tower for communication. "I'm probably the first person up here in years". This thought as not a comforting one. Jason swung himself out over the edge of the shoddy platform beneath him to look skyward. The flashing red beacon atop the tower looked awfully distant. He crawled along the now wooden platform beneath his feet in search of a way to hoist himself even higher. He found a crude rope ladder attached to one of the large metal girders which spanned the height of the tower. He was about to pull himself onto it and climb when he was distracted by a bright glimmer on the ground below. He jumped back as quickly as he could and forced himself down until he was flat against the dusty wooden platform. His heart sank as he realised that his problems had just become a _lot_ more serious.


End file.
